Friday, February 20, 2009

Sugar-coating unemployment

In announcing the renovation of the Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter went off topic for a minute to answer a question comparing the current economic climate to the Great Depression of his childhood.

”There is no comparison to the Great Depression and where we are now,” he said. “The Great Depression was much more severe. Right now, we have 7 percent unemployment. In the Great Depression, it was four times that. Back then, there was no money.”

Why is this so hard? As we commented previously, there are six different measurements that the BLS puts out. Carter's 7% value neglects large swaths of the unemployed. Right now, the government's unemployment rate is 14% if you want the closest apples-to-apples comparison that can be made.